Happy Birthday, Garry Trudeau

[filkertom]

One of the very best political satirists, and comic writers, ever.

What would be some of your favorite Doonesbury bits? I could rattle off dozens, but, just to start it off with one you likely don't know, I cite Doonesbury: The Musical. Uncle Duke has bought Walden Commune with the intention of turning it into high-priced condos. After a fitful night of trying to figure out what the heck to do, the gang is sleeping sprawled all over the living room.

At which point, a frickin' bulldozer comes up the porch and right through the front wall.

Everybody dives for cover.

And Duke climbs down off the 'dozer, looks around, and says, "God damn it. That does it. I'm changing pharmacologists."

Comments

[ericcoleman]

A Duke moment as well

"Killing bats with my ruler, big hairy ones"

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

As Brother Zonker would say...

"FAR FREAKIN' OUT!"

[ldwheeler.livejournal.com]

Duke is captain of Donald Trump's luxury liner. They rescue the old, bloated Elvis Presley, who indeed had been captured by aliens. He gives a concert, attended by George H.W. Bush.

(paraphrase)

Elvis: I'm with this cat on everything -- patriotism, the flag .. everything but drugs!
Bush: Elvis, my old pal Noreiga felt the same way. It's an honest difference!
(Elvis proceeds to lead the audience in a mass recital of the Pledge of Allegiance.)
Duke (to Trump): See, this is why I stopped using. Who can tell the difference anymore?

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

Baby Kim, throwing a fit about her rice pudding. Told by her bewildered parents that those are only raisins in it:

. o O {Oh. I thought it was shrapnel.}

[trdsf.livejournal.com]

Too many to list! The classic Watergate strips, in particular the infamous "Guilty, guilty, guilty!" that got Trudeau "banished" to many an OpEd page. I recently picked up "The Fireside Watergate", written by my favorite liberal curmudgeon, Nicholas von Hoffman, and illustrated by Trudeau. Every President should be happy that Trudeau has gone for iconic representations of them, because his Nixon was creepy.

Let me think. Zonker's ruminations while snorkeling in Walden Pond, BD's (usually ineffectual) attempts to maintain control of his huddle. The passings of Dick and Lacey Davenport and Andy Lippincott (and Andy's introduction, too). Reagan's Brain and Ron Headrest. Mark and Chase's wedding. The tribute strip to Charles Schulz. B.D.'s post-Gulf War recovery attempts (and, of course, B.D. meeting Phred in the wilds of Viet Nam and getting righteously hammered with him :)).

I also recently picked up a DVD of the animated Doonesbury special, which I hadn't seen since it aired (along with some other John and Faith Hubley pieces)

And let's not forget this little tidbit, either: 2-22-87: Doonesbury becomes the first comic strip in history to print the entire Constitution of the United States in the Sunday paper. You go, Garry.

[liddle-oldman.livejournal.com]

I was impressed -- and actually moved -- in the sequence where BD looses his helmet. That is, his blind jingoistic defenses have been taken from him in the explosion...

Brilliant, that Sunday stip, simply brilliant.

[trdsf.livejournal.com]

In a strange way, it took losing a leg to make BD a more whole person... every time I've thought Trudeau was past it, he always comes up with something to top himself.

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

Damned if I can choose... way too freakin many comedy diamonds to pick out highlights.

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

"Good old Bick. I thought he'd never get married."

Closely followed by:

"'Bridegoon?'"
"Hold on. Here's another slip..."

Those two made me seriously short of breath...

[nuveena.livejournal.com]

"Oh it gives a student pause,
when his teachers pass him without cause!
They have tenure, why can't we?
The real world chews up kids like me!"

I'm with siliconshaman, too many to choose. But my favorite in recent months is this one:

http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html?uc_full_date=20060212

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

Not a Doonesbury moment, but "Tanner '88." I haven't watched the recent "Tanner on Tanner," but understand it is nowhere near as good.

[sdelmonte]

Pretty much anything with Uncle Duke makes my list, but the top of that would include his "death", his career as GM of the Redskins, and his voyage to the Falklands.

The moment that sums up the strip, though, was the one where BD, stateside after losing his leg, ponders what with the helmets all those years. Trudeau is funny, poignant, and meta at once.

[kshandra]

"I'm a reasonable man, Macarthur...."

(Which is always the line I have people picture when we start playing The Casting Game and I suggest Mitch Pileggi as Duke.)

[zibblsnrt.livejournal.com]

I'd stopped reading it for awhile, mostly being distracted by various other stuff. Someone pointed me to the arc where BD got wounded at Fallujah (and the storyline dealing with that since), which has successfully gotten me back into it.

I should probably start digging through the depths of the comic's archives at some point, if just as another angle on my history-geekery.

[liddle-oldman.livejournal.com]

I note that Yussif Islam, nee' Cat Stevens, was born on the very same day.

Another triumph of astrology!

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

My best Doonesbury memory was one at Walden.
Zonker is in the kitchen, shouting over his shoulder something approximately "It's time to clean the fridge: there's something inside holding the door closed."

[trdsf.livejournal.com]

Oh, and when's the last time Zonker had a conversation with his plants? I always liked those... especially when one of them spoke to Mike. :)

[palenoue.livejournal.com]

Too many favorites to list (though "Guilty, guilty guilty!" is in the top three ;-)

What I like most about Doonsbury is that even after all these years, it can still cause controversy. Liek when he listed the names of soldiers killed in Iraq, the newspapers that pulled the strip paid for that decision for months later.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Most of mine are Duke moments. Lacey Davenport had some great ones, but my all time favorite has to be from Zonker.

It's election day, and Mark is trying to get zonker out of Walden Puddle to vote. Zonker ignores him, and Mark storms off. Zonk asks, in thought ballons, if a man is really obligated to take part in the system. "And the trees whisper a gentle 'no'." Last panel:

"Good going, trees."